Wesley Corpus

to say to me !---I am John Wesley.” One of them appeared extremely angry at this, thet I should presume to say I was Mr. John Wesley.” And I know not how I might have fared for advancing so bold an assertion, but that Mr. Collins, the minister of Redruth, (accidentally, as he said) came by. Upon his accosting me, and saying, he knew me at Oxford, my first antagonist was silent, and a dispute of another kind began: whether this preaching had done any good. I appealed to inatter of fact. He allowed, (after many words,) “ People are the better for the present ;” but added, “ To be sure, by and by they will be as bad, if not worse than ever.” When he rode away, one of the gentlemen said, “ Sir, I would speak with you a little: let us ride to the gate.” We did so, and he said, “ Sir, I will tell you the ground of this. All the gentlemen of these parts say, that you have been a long time in France and Spain, and are now sent hither by the Pretender; and that these societies are to join him.” Nay, surely “all the gentlemen in these parts” will not he against their own conscience! I rode hence to a friend’s house, some miles off, and found the sleep of a labouring man is sweet. I was informed there were many here also who had an earnest desire to hear “ this preaching ;” but they did not dare; Sir V--n having solemnly declared, nay, and that in the face of the whole congregation, as they were coming out of church, “If any man of this parish dares hear these fellows, he shall not--come to my Christmas feast!”